Gannett cutting newspaper jobs

Gannett Co. Inc., publisher of USA Today and hundreds of other newspapers and owner of two dozen television stations, including WUSA Channel 9 in Washington, will conduct another round of layoffs across its U.S. Community Publishing division before the end of the year.

Division President Robert Dickey, in a letter to publishers and general managers, said the media company will begin an involuntary staff reduction of about 10 percent by the first week of December. Each publisher is responsible for developing a plan by mid-November to meet the 10 percent goal. Laid-off personnel will receive one week of severance for every year with the company, with a cap of 26 weeks.

Gannett officials at the company’s McLean-based headquarters could not immediately be reached for comment.

Gannett (NYSE: GCI) in August announced it would cut 1,000 positions across its newspaper division.

Gannett’s profits fell 32 percent in the third quarter, as advertising sales slowed.

Gannett publishes 85 daily newspapers and nearly 900 non-daily publications and operates 23 television stations in the U.S. It also holds more than 100 domestic publishing Web sites.